Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake is one of the most successful recording artists of his generation, having sold a staggering 55 million albums with boyband NSYNC and more than 15 million as a solo artist. He has won 6 Grammy Awards and 2 Emmys and was the first ever celebrity to appear on Ashton Kutcher’s MTV show Punk’d!
Timberlake was set on the road to stardom at the tender age of 11 when he was the runner up on US talent show Star Search. He was subsequently recruited as a Mouseketeer for The New Mickey Mouse club where he was to meet future girlfriend Britney Spears and future* Nsync band mate JC Chasez, as well as Christina Aguilera. Aged just 14 he recruited JC Chasez to join a band which was to be managed by Lou Pearlman, and *Nsync were born. The band went on to be hugely successful all over the world, and were arguably the biggest boyband in the US in the late 1990s. However, towards the end of the decade Timberlake was itching to go solo and began working on material with hip hop/punk renegades The Neptunes as well as one of the hottest producers on the block Timbabland.
In August 2002 he performed Like I Love You at the MTV Video Music Awards and a new solo star was born. His debut album Justified went straight to the top of the charts in a number of countries and eventually went on to become a triple platinum selling album. Around this time, Timberlake split from his long term girlfriend Britney Spears, amidst rumours that she had cheated on him with choreographer Wade Robson. Although he never openly admitted that the song was about her, his track Cry Me a River did seem to have a very personal story to tell and it was noted at the time that the girl who appeared in the video for the song bore a remarkable resemblance to Spears.
The following two years saw Timerlake’s star continue to rise and in 2004 he was asked to perform alongside Janet Jackson at that year’s Superbowl. During the performance he ripped part of Jackson’s costume briefly exposing one of her breasts and getting both of them into serious hot water with the television network that aired the Superbowl and the conservative American public. Both stars were threatened with exclusion from that year’s Grammys unless an apology was made. Timberlake went on to say that he was ‘sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the half time performance.’ The term wardrobe malfunction was immediately picked up by the popular press and is now widely used to refer to any occasion where something goes publicly wrong with a star’s outfit or costume revealing more than was intended.
The public outcry, however did not unduly affect Timberlake’s popularity and his second album Future Sex/ Love Sounds debuted at number 1 in the US billboard charts. It was again produced by Timbaland and stayed at number 1 for seven consecutive weeks, beating Coldplay’s record for the biggest one week sales of a digital album.
